preachers responded to the death of her uncle, William IV, with sermons usually delivered either to coincide with his funeral at St George's ChapelWindsor on 8 July, or on the following day, Sunday 9 July. Similarly, more than six decades later, Queen Victoria's own death on 22 January 1901 was followed by nationwide preaching of sermons reflecting on the event, normally delivered on either of the two following Sundays, 27 January and 3 February, or to coincide with the funeral on Saturday 2 February. Although only a small proportion of such sermons were published in full, it is apparent from the larger selection reported in local and national newspapers, that clergy and ministers felt an obligation to deliver sermons on such events, and that their utterances were of interest to a wider public than the normal congregations at their respective churches and chapels. In an age before broadcast media facilitated a sense of actual participation in remote observances, for the great majority of the population attendance at such a sermon is likely to have provided their most tangible sense of participation in national mourning.Many hundreds of funeral sermons were published in Britain during the Victorian period. Just as in relation to eighteenth-century sermons (cross-ref to Pritchard p. 5) more precise calculation of the size of the surviving corpus would be an extensive research project in itself. Not only is it necessary to take account of anthologies and multiple editions, but catalogue searches using obvious keywords cannot guarantee comprehensive recovery of titles in which these words do not feature, and there is a need to survey numerous different collections. Funeral sermons that were privately printed, or had a local provincial circulation did not necessarily